The words "holiday cleaning" can make the neatest person cringe. When I was growing up in the 1940s holiday cleaning was an annual event. During the holidays, many of us feel the need to clean our homes with annual holiday cleaning.

At the beginning of each season holiday cleaning happens and as we clean the home in a very physical sense. If a man promises to contribute to the holiday cleaning by dusting shelves while his wife scours the kitchen cupboards, she will not be impressed if she returns to find the dust undisturbed and her husband happily engrossed in a book. Even after agreeing to participate in the holiday cleaning, men have a tendency to wander away before the job is anywhere near finished.

Holiday cleaning is time consuming, so the best thing you can do is to sit down and plan a time schedule for each job in advance. We've got some holiday cleaning tips and advice from the pros that will help you get done in record time. Get everyone in the family to spend some time with you the day before the big holiday cleaning to pick up around the house. Use that holiday optimism and make sure you are ready to play when the weather finally breaks! Forget waiting until a holiday to start holiday cleaning. I mean, who wants to be cleaning when it's warm outside? However, holiday is not the universal season of cleaning. In our house, the annual holiday cleaning focuses on the garage. In the same way we can benefit from not leaving holiday cleaning to April or May alone.

The first part of this method of holiday cleaning is done by cleaning each room in its entirety; windows, walls, curtains, and wardrobes all are cleaned whether they need it or not, before moving to the next room. Once you have completed your serious holiday cleaning, it is then important to maintain this level of communication. Start out by taking a quick look through your cleaning supplies a few days before the big holiday clean.

So I guess our grandmothers and mothers were right about holiday cleaning. We have no idea how long it was between Adam and the time Eve came onto the scene, but it was long enough to get the entire Garden of Eden dirty, necessitating a thorough cleaning. If you've moved the furniture to get your cleaning done, think about putting it back differently. Prevent oven cleaning problems by keeping the lower rack lined with foil, changed frequently, preventing greasy spills that would require heavy chemicals to remove.

I'm going to assume that you already know the basics of cleaning, removing whatever you don't need or aren't emotionally attached to, and how to keep your belongings organized. Holiday cleaning can be a health hazard if you take on too much at once or it can have its advantages where you can treat it as a form of exercise workout.

Whether it is the holiday-cleaning bug or a fall-cleaning bug, make some time to clean out your kitchen cupboards. From the living room to the kitchen, opening cupboards, looking in drawers, and then on to the bathroom, the bedroom, etc. After the storage room I head into the living room and wander about looking at things, especially the things that annoy me, and drop them into the bag.

Go ahead and take the plunge, do some holiday cleaning.